Electric juice extractors such as horizontal macerating juicers have been used for many decades now.
An example of such a horizontal macerating juicer is for instance provided by US 2009/064875 A1. In such juice extractors, food products to be juiced are inserted into the juice extractor and the solid constituents, e.g. food fibers, sometimes referred to as pulp, is separated from the juice, with the juice and pulp being expelled from the juice extractor through separate outlets. In order to further aid the separation of the juice from the pulp, such juice extractors may further comprise a filter for capturing pulp from the juice to be expelled, which is typically placed such that the extracted juice must pass the filter before it is expelled from the juice extractor through the juice outlet.
The juicer typically has a drive motor, and a hopper through which a spindles passes, which is driven by the drive motor. The food products are supplied to an inlet of the hopper, and a pulp container collects the pulp from its respective outlet.
After use, the hopper needs to be removed from the remainder of the device, for emptying and cleaning. This involves detaching the hopper from the drive motor. A pulp container is also emptied and cleaned.
One known connection mechanism for the hopper uses a bayonet fitting between the hopper and the main motor housing. The hopper has to be pushed into place, and then twisted to lock the two parts together. This is a cumbersome operation for the user. An alternative is to use a rotating cap nut or lock ring, for instance provided by U.S. Pat. No. 5,156,872 A1. In this case, only a nut or the lock ring needs to be rotated to complete the bayonet fitting, rather than rotating the whole hopper. However, this can be a fiddly operation for a user. Furthermore, the small diameter of the nut means that a large force must be applied, which may be difficult for some users.